Freed Azeri Bloggers Promise to Fight On

Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, Azerbaijani bloggers jailed on disputed charges, have been released after spending 17 months in prison.

The case of the two young men was an embarrassment to Azerbaijan. United States president Barack Obama raised the matter when he met Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev in New York in September.

Milli and Hajizade were released on parole before completing the sentences of two-and-a-half and two years, respectively, which they received last November following an altercation at a restaurant in Baku. Despite many witness statements that the fight was provoked by people at a neighbouring table, and the fact that it was Milli and Hajizade who went to the police to file a complaint, the two ended up being arrested and jailed.

Greeted by supporters and journalists on their release, the two expressed anger that their convictions still stood, and promised to keep fighting for journalists who are still in prison.

“I don’t intend to thank anyone for my freedom. I am not a criminal or a hooligan, and being at liberty is my right. Emin and I need to be completely vindicated,” Hajizade said as he walked out of court. Milli was freed a day later. “It is clear our arrests were ordered because of our public activity, because of our blogs in which we strongly criticise injustice.”

Some commentators had speculated that one or both of the bloggers might leave Azerbaijan and seek asylum in another country, but Hajizade rejected any such suggestion.

“We are not planning to change anything in our lives, and we will continue what we’ve been doing up until now. We do not intend to go abroad. Personally, I have nowhere to go – everything I have is here,” he said.

Human rights activists were in no doubt that the two were jailed for annoying state officials, perhaps because of a satirical video they made about a donkey to mock corruption.

“The donkey video is one possibility. What’s clear is that the lads were put on trial for their public activities, because they criticised the authorities,” Eldar Zeynalov, chairman of the Human Rights Centre of Azerbaijan, said.

The authorities themselves reject suggestions that the two were framed for political reasons.

Ali Hasanov, head of the presidential administration’s political department, told the Turan news agency that the allegations were “just absurd”.

“Hundreds of people go on trial for hooliganism in Azerbaijan every year. Should these two be treated differently because of their intellect, education and connections in some European or western country? That doesn’t make them special cases for Azerbaijan’s legal code. Everyone is equal before the law,” he said.

Western officials had regularly brought up the detention of the two bloggers at meetings with their Azerbaijani counterparts. Reacting to their release, a statement from Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, said Brussels would be keeping freedom of speech on the agenda.

“The EU and its international partners have paid close attention to this particular case. In previous EU statements calling for their release, the EU has stressed the importance of this case for freedom of expression, as well for the functioning of civil society in Azerbaijan,” she said.

The United States embassy issued a statement welcoming the release of Hajizade and Milli, noting that the matter had been raised by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and expressing hope that the journalist Eynulla Fatullayev would also be freed.

Fatullayev, editor of the newspapers Realny Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaycan, was arrested in 2007 and sentenced to 11 years in jail for inciting terrorism and ethnic animosity and tax evasion – all charges that the European Court of Human Rights dismissed as unfounded.

He is currently appealing against a fourth charge of possessing narcotics, which he says were planted in his prison cell, and is promising that if he loses, he will take that case to the European court as well. (For more on Fatullayev’s case, see Baku Defies European Judgement on Jailed Journalist.) 

Hajizade said he would campaign for the journalist’s release.

“Everyone who has been unfairly convicted including Eynulla Fatullayev must be released. And for our part, we will fight for full vindication. Emin and I are not hooligans,” he said.

Milli said his time in jail had not changed his beliefs.

“In prison I had a lot of time to think about freedom,” he said. “Freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of activity – all freedoms begin with a person being free inside. You can arrest someone and lock him up, but you cannot stop him thinking freely. The more freely people think, the more free our country will become.”

Kifayat Haqverdiyeva is a freelance journalist in Azerbaijan.